Valley Village

Tell us what Valley Village means to you

What makes this a good place to live? What are the downsides?

If you enter anything in this field your comment will be treated as spam:

Name::

Comment::

Valley village ia just pretending it isn't part of north hollywood anymore. Who gave them the right to change my neighborhood? No one knows what it is anyway. Its all about elitism. People trying to be apart of something they are not. Your not studio city nor sherman oaks. Get over yourselves and take pride in the whole community and make change. An artificial boundary isn't going to stop crime or poverty. NOHO is changing for the better abd when the transformation is complete, don't ask to join the famous NOHO name again. Stay irrelevant valley village. Stay in your bubble. Half of the neigjborhood is kind of crappy anyway

I love living here in valley village. i live by laurel canyon and chandler blvd. one block over from the senior apartments and the grass is always green and the streets are clean. everyone is nice and always say high walking there dogs, the homes near me are well kept and i love all the trees around me. anyone will love it here.

I lived in Valley Village just off Magnolia east of Whitsett from '95 to '06 and truly enjoyed the neighborhood. There is a large Orthodox Jewish community and they have made many improvements that has provided the feeling of a tightknit, safe place to live. I've recently moved back to V.V. and am VERY shocked at the rise in crime. It seems every other night there is the police helicopter above us. I understand the cutbacks re the police but dispatching after the fact doesn't prevent crime. We definately need more patrols in our lovely 'hood. There was a time not long ago the I felt very safe going for a walk after the heat of the day had dissipated but no more.

I moved to Valley Village about 8 months ago and I love it! I feel safe, it's a good biking neighborhood, and I'm not too far from the 101 and 170. There are a lot of Orthodox Jewish people in the neighborhood, which is of course fine, but it does mean a lot of businesses are closed on Saturdays. So I just drive (or bike) to the area south of Ventura.

I can't believe how naive you all are with your "no worries" attitudes!! This neighborhood should be cute & safe like a village but is not at all. Ever drive down Kling st off Laurel Cyn at almost any time of day or night? drugs, prostitutes, thieves, gangbangers. It is too obvious how sketchy it is with all the vehicle traffic 24-7. Car & property crime is rampant since gangbangers do all their initiations in the area & now you can add unsolved murders to that list as well. The cops turn a blind eye partly because they are scared or in cahoots with the bangers/dealers & also because the idiot mayor cuts the budgets & keeps them all on Victory Blvd. Don't be fooled, Valley Village is just an evil Noho in disguise!!!!!

I worked in North Hollywood for 17 years, and lived next door for 20. The sad little stepsister north of the cahuenga pass, always in the shadow of her world famous sibling.

She continues to be insulted by artificial boundaries and new communities, cut from her original township.

A visit to the old post office on Chandler, gives but a hint of what once, long ago was a community that has lost her soul.

Anyone who remembers the glory days must surely be gone now, but if you stand on the corner of Weddington and Lankershim, between the El Portal theater, and the old bank building, and listen above the din of rush hour traffic, you will hear the whispers of the ghosts that lived here when the air was filled with not only a promise of better life, but orange blossoms as well.

I lived in the "Village" for twenty years. Believe me, the name is far more quaint than the reality.

The name North Hollywood has world recognition, Valley Village always brought a "Where is that" from everyone but locals.

The death of the Riverside market was the final loss of the old town feeling. If they would of paid more attention to keeping the quality of life up for all of North Hollywood, instead of carving it up into little pieces, it would of been better for all.

They keep ruining what little charm that was left by building mega condos and apartment buildings, which ruin any sense of community.

You can call it a village, but it still sits in an ocean of more than a million people in the San Fernando Valley.

I grew up in studio city and live in Sherman Village and had been confused ever since i moved there about this whole valley village/ Sherman village borders and history. B/c there are clear city signs indicating that I live in Sherman Village and not Valley Village 2 but on this and other maps we are apart of valley village

I lived in NH/VV for 12 years (82-94). It was a quiet and safe area to raise my 3 daughters. Upon my return visit i see it hasn't changed much. I do miss the Riverside market on Laurel Canyon and Riverside, it is now a Starbucks. I wish i had kept my home there.

What a fantastic resource! Congratulations LA Times. Valley Village is one of this city's finest neighborhoods, a vibrant community where we know our neighbors and take pride in our way of life. We have been recognized as one of the city's greenest neighborhoods, have some of the finest schools in LA, and it's all tucked away in a quiet corner of the south east San Fernando Valley. Yes, Los Angeles is our city and our address, but Valley Village is our neighborhood and our home.

The name Valley Village dates back to the late 30s when a community meeting was held attended by over 500 at the King Vidor Ranch on Magnolia to create a master planned community. The war came along and after the plan never developed due to freeways etc. Eventually the Valley Village Homeowners Association which I founded in the late 80s researched the history and restored the name of Valley Village. There is a Valley Village post office giving more creditabiity to the name and the name was officially recognized by the City in the 90s when Valley Village signs were posted at key intersections. The "Village" comes from the fact that many parts of the single family defined area lack typical street parkways and sidewalks, thus the "Village" charcter or country lane appearance of many single family residential streets. Certain areas along the Magnolia/Chandler corridor were rezoned in the 50s in anticipation of mass transit running on what was then

the route of the by then abandoned SPRR

streetcar line. Eventually in the early 21 century, the MTA Orange Line busway rwas developed as a landscaped rapid transit busway rather than either an eelevated or subway line.

The boundaries were drawn originally to include what is now known as Sherman Village, a small area near Coldwater/Rivrside. At the time the Valley Village Specific Plan which is more development restrictive than the City Municipal Code was being developed, the Councimember did not want certain parcels along Riverside Drive subject to the Plan development restrictions and as a consequence when the Valley Village Specific Plan was finally approved in the early 90s, that area was excluded so 2 large apartment ccomplexes could be built.

My family has lived on the same spot for nearly 80 years -- first my grandparents, then my parents, now me. We live just north of the Ventura Freeway -- I mean JUST north, close enough to hit westbound traffic with a lemon off our tree. It was always North Hollywood to my grandparents, but our mail came from the Toluca Lake post office, and I always called it Studio City, since that's where my friends a block and eight lanes of traffic away lived. So who decided it was suddenly Valley Village? Why not Studio City or Toluca Lake? And why don't we just put "Los Angeles" as our address, like people in normal cities do? I mean, it IS Los Angeles... nobody in SF has "Potrero Hill" or "the Castro" as their address.

We have lived in the Valley for over 50 years; 10 in Van Nuys and the rest in VV. When our kids were growing up the schools, of course, were a big attraction, as was the fact that there was a cul-de-sac for them to play in safely.

When the (nobody consulted us) renaming from N. Hollywood happened, I always felt it was a stunt tantamount to calling it "North Studio City." Geographically that would have made a lot more sense.

I just moved here from the UK and I'm amazed at how civilized and villagey (if there is such a word) it really is. Its safe and very quiet and so very convenient for the Freeway's. We intend to buy a house if not in VV then perhaps Studio City.

I'm happy I made the move but miss my family and friends so very, very much.